BooksBarbecue
Back A Night of Flames Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise forMATTHEW HARFFY
  3. BY MATTHEW HARFFY
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Dedication
  7. Maps
  8. Epigraph
  9. Contents
  10. Place Names
  11. One
  12. Two
  13. Three
  14. Four
  15. Five
  16. Six
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Ten
  21. Eleven
  22. Twelve
  23. Thirteen
  24. Fourteen
  25. Fifteen
  26. Sixteen
  27. Seventeen
  28. Eighteen
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. Thirty-Eight
  49. Thirty-Nine
  50. Forty
  51. Forty-One
  52. Forty-Two
  53. Forty-Three
  54. Forty-Four
  55. Forty-Five
  56. Forty-Six
  57. Forty-Seven
  58. Forty-Eight
  59. Forty-Nine
  60. Fifty
  61. Fifty-One
  62. Fifty-Two
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Sixty-Two
  73. Author’s Note
  74. Acknowledgements
  75. About the Author
  76. An Invitation from the Publisher

The water held the memory of ice, mountains and deep lakes. It was freezing after the warmth of the hut and my breath caught in my throat at the shock of it. But as I scoured the grime and sweat from my body, so my head cleared of the terror that had threatened to overwhelm me. I must be alert and ready for any opportunity that God might give me. I understood then that I had no hope of surviving, surrounded as we were by so many, but if I was given a sliver of a chance of taking Ljósberari’s life, I would be ready to act. If I was to die anyway, I could at least rid the land of this evil before my end.

Hauling myself out of the water, I pulled the linen robe over my head. It clung to my dripping body. It was similar to the habit I had worn as a monk, though I was given nothing with which to cinch it. I stood there, skin pimpled with the cold, and waited for Leofstan to clean himself of the muck from the hut. Having watched my ignominious fall, after shedding his travel-stained and torn habit, Leofstan lowered himself more carefully into the water. He pulled his discarded rope belt from where he had left it and cleaned that as well as he could too. Chlotar, knife in hand, moved close to me, but did not feel the need to place the blade at my throat. I contemplated snatching the weapon from him. I was fast, and it might be possible, but then what? Perhaps I would kill the Frank, but I would surely be slain, and it was the head of the snake that needed to be severed if this evil was to be ended.

When Leofstan had finished, I helped him out of the water. He thanked me with a nod and donned the pale robe, tying his wet rope belt about his waist.

“Move,” said Chlotar, pushing us towards the land.

“What of our shoes?” I asked, not sure how far we were to walk and wanting to prolong the moment before we reached the place of our execution.

“Leave them,” said Chlotar, impatiently shoving me along the wharf towards the crowd.

The watchers parted as we walked between them, their eyes wide and dark. No longer silent, they whispered and murmured with excitement like a vast beehive as we left the river behind us. The atmosphere was tense and charged, the way the air is before a thunderstorm, but there were no clouds in the late afternoon sky.

“Now we know how Isaac must have felt,” said Leofstan, his voice a whisper.

I looked at him sidelong.

“But God stayed Abraham’s hand,” I said. “He sacrificed a goat instead. I don’t see any burnt goats hanging from stakes.”

Leofstan shrugged and made an approximation of a smile.

“Anything is possible,” he said.